For all the people going "STOP WHINING YOU my old friend" I am trying to state the situation and yeah, I am annoyed by it but I think it is an exaggeration to say I'm super mad and upset. Plus, if we didn't discuss these events on the forums... then what would the diplomacy section even be? It would be totally empty... is that what you want?
Maybe you shouldn't have bragged so much about being the faction fighting the most wars, making the most attacks, with the most battles. Before it was "look at us doing so well, we are at war with nearly
everyone!" and now it is "we are already at war with everyone, this is ridiculous." It is a slippery slope: if you go to war with so many factions at once, it's just a matter of time before there are no factions left to leave you alone. Practically asking people (more like a challenge or a dare, really) to go on the offensive against you for a change probably didn't help. Having so many vocal personalities with bad attitudes on your side certainly didn't help.
Basically, you seem to want to have your cake (the glory of fighting on so many fronts when succeeding) and eat it, too (complaining when the situation tips against your favor). Well, you can't reasonably do that, when previously you've been so conceited about how many factions you're fighting, how many battles you've had, and how you're so active in strat.
It's all well and good to talk about it, gripe about it, whatever, as the forums are indeed here for discussions, but with discussion comes disagreement. If you aren't prepared to have your statements met with opposing viewpoints then you'll just have to pay the price of not being able to back them up with a sensical counter-argument. Especially when you guys have consistently pissed and moaned every time something unfavorable happened that was beyond your control, but this time you have no one to blame but yourselves.
And to the people worried about FCC not having enough mercs, I think they'll be just fine.